


Ice Cream and I Scream

by icyowl97



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Carlos can't bake, Carlos is a Dork, Cecil's birthday, Episode: e032 Yellow Helicopters, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, birthday stuff, cecilos - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-01
Updated: 2014-08-07
Packaged: 2018-02-07 00:31:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1878267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icyowl97/pseuds/icyowl97
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carlos had been planning the perfect party for Cecil for a long time. He had run calculations and simulations, and it seemed like it would work out perfectly. But perfection is impossible, and as the day spirals out of control Carlos realizes that while he might not be able to give Cecil what he wishes he could give him, he can still give Cecil the most important thing of all: He can be there for Cecil when Cecil needs him most.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Party Plans

Breath in. Breath out. Carlos opened his eyes.

"Belgium." He mutters under his breath, taking in the disaster zone that lay in front of him.

~ ~ ~

It had started off so simply. Cecil's birthday had been coming up soon, and Carlos wanted to throw him a party. He'd planned it out, and had sent handwritten (with a quill his bewildered mother had sent him after he requested it) invites to Old Women Josie, Cecil's niece (but not Steve Carlsberg), the station's current intern, and all of Cecil's other's friends.

Everything had been going fine. The entire room that he'd rented was covered in purple, black, and watermelon colored streamers (Cecil's favorite colors), hundreds of balloons that Carlos and his team of scientists had to inflate, and some of Cecil's favorite games, including "Where are you in the void", which is sort of like pin the tail on the donkey, but meaningless, and musical chairs.

He'd been a bit worried that maybe it was a bit too childish for Cecil, but the Faceless Old Woman had assured him that Cecil would love it. It had all been coming together so perfectly, when....

"To the family of Vithaya, let me say that she was a very good intern....." Carlos reached out and turned the radio up. He always had it on, even when he wasn't really listening, but that sounded a lot like what Cecil said when someone was dying. "...your daughter did not die in vain, and perhaps, given the tenuous reality of existence, she may not have died at all, for it’s debatable whether any of us ever truly live...."

He turned it back down, letting the consequences of this sink in. Intern Vithya had been a lovely girl, very bright, and she'd agreed to make the cake for Cecil's party which meant that now someone else would have to make it. Namely, him.

He sat down and buried his face in his hands. If Vithya was dead, or, you know, an angel, then who was going to make the cake for Cecil? They were running out of time, and the painted bricks that were labeled as "cakes" at the store were usually poisonous or venomous, or both.

His first instinct was to call Old Women Josie, but when he dialed her up he just got a voice message about how if she didn't answer, the angel's had fallen or something. Everyone else he tried afterwards was too busy as well, leaving only one person to back the cake: Carlos himself.

"Baking is just like chemistry." Carlos said to himself, heading into the kitchen to gather stuff. "You mix elements together to creature a solution." He could do chemistry, and he could do this.

Reaching under the cabinets he pulled out a huge, dusty book that former intern Vithya had said was her mother's cookbook. He flipped it open, a cloud of dust rising up in the air when the heavy cover struck the counter.

He waved his hand through it to try and clear it before leaning closer to look at the recipe. "Alright. This looks easy. Three striped eggs...."

~ ~ ~

It took Carlos about an hour just to gather up all the necessary ingredients. He didn't remember having to using any rattlesnake venom or ground basilisk scales when he cooked with his grandmother when he was younger, but it made sense that she didn't let him handle the more dangerous materials. 

But he managed to gather up all the ingredients within a reasonable time frame and had managed to keep all his limbs, so he considered it a win and was grinning as he slipped the cake pan into the oven. This was going to be great.

Except it wasn't, as Carlos now knew. When he'd come back from some last minute fussing with the decorations, having heard the timer ding, he opened up the oven door to revel a cake monster.

It looked great, and smelled great, and it probably would have been great if it hadn't launched itself at Carlos, it's thick tentacles wrapping around his shoulders as it drove its teeth into his shoulder.

Carlos, swearing bitterly, grabbed the cake monster by the wings on its back and pulled it off his shoulder, throwing it into the corner of the room. 

The creature hit the wall and was stunned for a few seconds, which was long enough to Carlos to flip metal mixing bowl over it and place a few bags of the Town Council approved no-wheat flour on the top, trapping the beast.

Pulling his labcoat off his shoulder, and wincing as he did so, Carlos peered at his shoulder. Carlos, while a scientist and not a doctor, was reasonably sure that the skin around the bite mark shouldn't be turning neon green. 

Grabbing a bottle of whiskey he'd had to put in the cake, he poured it over his shoulder, wincing as the alcohol seeped into the wound. Still mumbling curses, Carlos headed off to the car, to get some bandages as well as a weapon.

Fifteen minutes later, after his shoulder was bandaged and looked normal enough, Carlos tentatively crept into the building with a baseball bat in his hands. As he got closer to the kitchen he heard the distinct sound of things breaking. 

He sprinted the rest of the way, skidding to a stop as he rounded the corner and beheld the mess. 

The cake monster had escaped and had gone on an unholy rampage around the kitchen, breaking everything it could. The not-wheat flour bags had broken open and had dusted every surface in the room, the left over eggs were hissing and bubbling in a corner, and the creature itself had fled into the party room. 

Oh no no no no. Carlos was not okay with that. He had spent hours decorating that room for his boyfriend, and no accidentally-created life-form was going to destroy that. He tightened his grip on the bat and headed in.

The creature hadn't managed to do too much damage yet. It appeared to have been distracted by the balloons, and when Carlos walked in, he found the thing trying to eat one. 

The thing had already eaten a few of the balloons and was hovering a few feet above the ground. It couldn't run away, and it stood no chance against an angry Carlos.

"I spent three hours decorating this room!" Carlos exclaimed, hitting the creature as it flailed around, baring it's sugar teeth at him. "Three! Hours! This was supposed to be perfect for my boyfriend!" 

The creature grabbed the bat so Carlos smashed it against the floor. "No! Science and Night Vale do not interfere with my dating plans! Isn't it bad enough that my last date ended with me almost losing my leg!?"

The cake monster didn't, of course, have any answers, so Carlos just smacked it against the floor until it exploded, sending cake gunk and sugar shard all across the room.

Carlos closed his eyes, hoping that if he breathed deeply, it would all turn out to be a trick of the Void on his mind. He opened them. "Belgium."

The room was still covered in cake... mess? Guts? Carlos wasn't sure, but what he was sure of was that this was totally ruining his timetable for Cecil's party. In fact, Cecil's shift should be ending soon...

He rushed into the kitchen and turned the radio up, trying to see where in the show they were. 

But the show was over, and all Carlos could hear was the sound of slow, steady dripping. He gasped, and spun around, trying to run back into the party room to clean it up but instead slipping on the spilled not-wheat flour.

He heard Cecil scream from somewhere behind him. "No, no, I'm okay! It's okay!" Carlos pushed himself up, ready to apologize to his boyfriend, to explain what had happened, and give him a hug.

Except that Cecil wasn't there. But Carlos had clearly just heard him scream, and if....

He heard Cecil scream again, and Carlos' gaze slipped, in horror, to the source of the screams. 

Cecil's screams were being broadcasted over the radio.


	2. Paperwork and Smiles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cecil Palmer is upset. Cecil Palmer is angry. Cecil Palmer thinks that this is ridiculously unfair, and that the universe is being cruel. The one day he has to stay after work to rewrite his contract is the same day his boyfriend is throwing him a "surprise party" and the day his phone die? What a cruel twist.

Cecil Palmer was very upset about two things: the fact that he had renew his contract so early (he didn't think he'd ever had a management change, but he was sure that they weren't usually this random and so fast) and the fact that this was happening on his birthday.

Cecil knew about Carlos' "surprise party." He'd gotten several emails from confused people who were telling him that they were or weren't going to be able to make it to said party, despite being told to contact Carlos, and it even showed up in his list of news worthy events happening around Night Vale that appeared every morning on his desk. He didn't talk about it though, because he knew it was supposed to be a surprise party.

He just hated the fact that he was going to be late, because he knew how much work Carlos had put into it. But somethings can't be avoided, and, going off the events of today, random corporate takeovers of radio stations with no warning that happen to make you late to a surprise party fall under that category. He'd have to add that to list when he got home.

But for now, he had so much paperwork to do! He was trying to do it as fast as possible, but the entire thing was written in hieroglyphs, and he hadn't used hieroglyphs since he was in third grade, because he hadn't thought it would be important. If his mother's foresight had included this, then he would have studied, but instead here he was, with a killer headache that was half from the hieroglyphs and half from smacking his head against the table.

Honestly, this entire thing had been such an inconvenience. He'd already lost a fair amount of blood signing this, he had a headache from the hieroglyphs, and the brand that was now on his collarbone was still smarting every time his shirt brushed against it. They hadn't even given him ice for it, which was just plain rude. Even his old management had been more polite than this.

He sighed and pricked his finger again, signing yet another line. His finger was really starting to hurt, but he felt better when he realized that that had been the last page. He was finally done with this. He could finally go home and relax and celebrate his birthday with Carlos. 

That is, if the two men in black suits that were currently blocking the door would get out of his way. Which, currently, they showed no sign of wanting to do.

Cecil cleared his throat, gesturing to the door behind them. "Um, can I get through? I do have somewhere to be."

They didn't move. "Your presence is required for a few more moments, Mr. Palmer."

He twitched, annoyed. "Look, I get that this is new and stuff, but I'm already an hour late to my own birthday party, and I haven't called my boyfriend. He's probably really worried."

The men still didn't move, so Cecil tried again. "Can't this... Wait until tomorrow." He asked, glancing down at his watch. "Hang on, I'm two hours late now."

One of the men pointed to his chair. "Sit back down, Mr. Palmer. She should be here any moment."

Cecil raised an eyebrow. "She? Who is she?"

"Sit down, Mr. Palmer." Was the only response he got, and when one of the men took a threating step towards him, Cecil sat down.

Finally, 15 minutes of intense staring contests that Cecil had mentally declared and then physically lost, the door swung open and a woman walked in, her cane clinking against the tile.

Cecil instantly sat up, knowing that this was the woman that the men had been talking about her. Despite the smile and laugh lines, something about this woman screamed power at him, and he knew that this was a woman to be respected.

"Cecil Palmer?" She asked, and he nodded. She stuck a tiny hand out to him and he shook it. "Good afternoon, Cecil. I'm sorry about keeping you here so late, but you know how it is."

Cecil grinned and nodded despite having no idea how it is. He had a feeling it was a joke. "Oh, it's not a problem, ma'am, though I would like to leave as soon as possible."

She laughed, leaning against her cane. "Please don't be in such a rush. It was a quite a walk down here, and I'm not as young as I used to be. Let me enjoy your company."

Cecil stood up and rested his hand on the back of his swivel chair. "Oh, I'm sorry ma'am. Would you like to sit down?"

She waved her hand in the air. "Oh, I'm not that old yet! I'll have time to rest when I'm dead. No, I'm just here to talk about you, Cecil, and about the changes. Because I like you, and I want you to stay."

Cecil gestured to the paperwork behind him. "Well, ma'am, I have finished the paperwork. I do technically work for you now." He wasn't sure what more they wanted. What else was there? His soul?

"I know you do, I just want you to be aware of the fact that there will be change coming." The smile dropped from her lips, and the room suddenly felt 10 degrees cooler. Cecil shivered. "People get hurt in the way of change, Cecil, and I'd hate to see that happen to you. I've been listening to your show for quite a while, and I feel like I almost know you. So I need you to do something, Cecil."

The room was getting colder, and Cecil rubbed his hands together. The room didn't just feel colder like he'd thought, and frost was forming on the windows. "What do you need me to do?" He asked, seeing his breath in the air.

She smiled and the room suddenly warmed up again. "I need you to smile." She started heading back to the door, her cane clinking pleasantly against the floor.

"What if I don't smile?" He asked, then almost slapped himself. That was a stupid thing to ask.

She didn't turn around. "You will smile, Cecil. It just gets messy when we need to help."

It wasn't until she was gone that Cecil realized he didn't know her name, that she hadn't enjoyed his company, and that despite the fact that he was still shivering from the cold and from fear, his lips were curled up in the widest smile he'd ever worn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to clarify, while it was Cecil's scream on the radio, it was actually something he'd recorded himself doing earlier, and no Cecil Palmer's were hurt during the making of that recording. He's just been stuck doing paperwork.


	3. Good News First

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It is a simple and well known fact that bad news is bad, and good news is good. What is less simple is this: If you get bad new when you were expecting worse news than the news you recived, is it bad news or good news? 
> 
> Confused? Good, because Carlos is too.

Night Vale is a tough place to live, but what was harder than living in Night Vale is actually growing up in Night Vale. And while it had taken Carlos some time to grasp this, he was now aware that Janice was far stronger and tougher than he was, and just because she was in a just twelve and in a wheelchair, she didn't need his protection. 

He'd already found himself in multiple situations where Janice protected him from things that really shouldn't exist, in ways that shouldn't really work. Which was why he didn't feel too bad about the fact that he was sobbing his heart out in a corner with Janice assuring him that it would be fine.

Everyone on the guest list had shown up except Old Woman Josie, and Steve Carlsberg had come along anyways despite not being invited, and while the rest of them worked to fix the disaster zone that was the room Carlos had rented for the party, Janice was trying to cheer Carlos up.

"I'm the worst boyfriend ever." Carlos said, his voice muffled by the hands over his face.

Janice patted his shoulder sympathetically. "Aww, you aren't the worst boyfriend ever."

"Yes I am." Carlos said. "I should have tried to do something. I should have tried to help him, but instead I'm here, crying."

"Uncle Cecil will be fine. He always is. In fact, according to the prophecy, he's not even supposed to die in the radio station-"

"Wait, what prophecy?" Carlos asked, looking up at her. 

To be honest, Janice probably wouldn't have responded because Carlos, as an outsider, wasn't supposed to know about the prophecy, but luckily for her at that moment Cecil walked in through the door.

Carlos, who had been looking up at the door every 5 minutes whether it opened or not, noticed Cecil in just a few seconds and within a minute the two men were hugging each other in the middle of the room, Carlos crying into Cecil's shoulder.

"I thought I'd lost you, Cecil." Carlos said, and Cecil hugged him a little tighter. "I heard you screaming on the radio and I thought 'This is it. Some horrible disaster has finally gotten Cecil, and he's not going to come home and.... And I was so scared, Cecil."

"I'm fine, darling Carlos, gentle Carlos. I'm okay, I'm not hurt, I'm fine." Cecil whispered, trying to calm Carlos down. "I'm fine."

The two of them stood there like that for a while, Carlos clinging to Cecil like he was afraid that Cecil might slip away if he let going, Cecil trying to comfort his boyfriend.

Janice rolled up next to them, looking Cecil up and down. "Uncle Cecil, you gonna tell us what happened? Was it the electric snakes again?"

Suddenly aware of their audience, Carlos released Cecil, swiping at his eyes before looking closely at Cecil, checking for wounds. "Are you hurt, Cecil?" He asked, trying to remember where he'd put the medical kit- Right, it was in the car.

"I'm fine, darling Carlos. And no, Janice, it wasn't the electric snakes again. I've insulated my office. Umm, no, actually, it was just contract renegotiation. It's actually a very boring story and- Ohhh, is this a party for me, Carlos?" Cecil looked around, taking in all the decorations and games. 

Carlos hesitated briefly, wanting to question Cecil, but in the end he just answered the question. "Yeah, it's a party for you. I knew that it was your birthday, and I wanted to do something special, but I ended up ruining it..."

Cecil waved his hand. "Not at all, Carlos! Gosh, I can't believe you did this for me... It's amazing Carlos. It's perfect! There's food, and there's balloons and games, and you even invited all my friends! Gosh Carlos, this is just so... so neat!"

As Carlos headed off towards the games with Janice, Carlos, his focus now back on the party, began to search for Steve Carlsberg. He found him by the punch and asked him, politely, to leave.

He felt really dizzy headed as Steve left, so he sat down on a chair, breathing in deeply and trying to figure out what was going on. He heard someone settle into the chair next to him and he looked up to find Cecil.

"You okay, Carlos?" Cecil asked softly, looking a bit concerned.

"I'm just... really, really happy, Cecil. Everything was just falling apart, and I was so scared. I was scared that you wouldn't like the party, and then I thought that I'd ruined it. And then I thought you were in trouble, but you weren't and... I'm just so happy, because we're here, and this is happening." Carlos reached out and, gently, took Cecil's hand. "But Cecil, what happened?"

Cecil frowned and looked over his shoulder at where Janice was playing hot chili pepper with some of the other kids. "Can we talk about this later?" He asked, his voice low.

"Of course." Carlos nodded. Off in the background the chili pepper had gone off, squirting chili juice into some kid's eye. 

"Good." Cecil stood up, his hand still holding Carlos' hand. "Now... would you like to play 'Where in the void are you?'" 

Carlos smiled at him, standing up as well. "it would be my pleasure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man, this chapter was really, really hard to write. I've never written Janice before, and I'm having a lot of trouble trying to pin down what I think of her. Like I said, this chapter was hard to write, and I'm sorry it took me so long to get this up.
> 
> I also don't know if I want to write a chapter about the party or if I will just skip the party and get straight to the conversation afterwards, so if you want to see the party, let me know in the comments. And if you see any blatantly obvious errors, feel free to point them out.

**Author's Note:**

> This story is set during and after Yellow Helicopters, with the screams belonging to Cecil. It's also Cecil's birthday.


End file.
